Safe Entry, Easy Exit
Sep 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy
Bolstering security at campus doors is critical for schools and universities.
- Lighting
Providing plenty of light to the area around an exterior entrance can deter someone trying to break into a facility or vandalize a door.
- Video surveillance
The increasing affordability of digital video systems has enabled schools and universities to install many surveillance cameras on their campuses. Video monitoring of doors, especially in remote areas of a building, help discourage intruders from entering a facility, and provide evidence of unauthorized entry when it does occur.
- Alarms
To combat unauthorized door-propping or detect a faulty door system that fails to close correctly, schools can outfit doors with alarms that notify the central office or security personnel when the door remains open too long.
- Intercoms
An intercom system can be used at a school entrance so that administrative employees can determine who is seeking entry before unlocking a door. A video camera that provides visual confirmation of the person's identity enhances the effectiveness of the intercom.
- Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)
Strategies such as making sure an entrance can be easily observed can discourage unwanted visitors from trying to enter a building. A school should situate its administrative office so that workers have a clear view of the main entrance; the entrance should be free of obstructions from bushes or other landscaping.
Kennedy, staff writer, can be reached at mkennedy@asumag.com.
Break the chain
After taking control of Washington, D.C., schools last year, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty learned that the city's fire marshal had found nearly 2,500 code violations at schools, including the use of chains and padlocks to secure many of the exterior doors at Ballou High School.
That prompted the mayor to form an interagency task force to address security and life-safety needs in school facilities. The result is a $5 million plan to replace doors at several campuses and provide security more sophisticated — and safer — than chains and padlocks. Eight high schools — Ballou, Anacostia, Spingarn, Roosevelt, Dunbar, Wilson, Coolidge and Cardozo — and Johnson Middle School have been outfitted with doors that have a delayed-egress locking system that will alert school officials when a door remains open for more than 15 seconds.
The district also has installed automated recording cameras at all of the nine schools' door locations, and card-reader systems that will facilitate access to the school by district administrators and maintenance staff.
82
Percentage of public schools that controlled access to school buildings by locking or monitoring doors during school hours, 2005-06.
41
Percentage of public schools that controlled access to school grounds with locked or monitored gates, 2005-06.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007”
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